UTAH STATE FAIR, September 5-15, Utah State Fair Park
A lot of folks think I’m joking when I speak of my love of the Utah State Fair, but there is nothing ironic about it. The event full of bizarro culinary treats, questionable entertainment choices, and carnival rides and games was one of the first things I experienced upon moving to Utah in 1986. And while I couldn’t appreciate how quintessentially “Utah” the fair was that first time around, I’ve come to love its displays of local crafts and oddball artistry, its demolition derbies and rodeos. The fact that it is a family-friendly event that also allows me to enjoy a cold beer certainly helps.
For a while during my years going to the fair, the programmers actually tried to book concerts that were far from your typical state-fair level talent. I reviewed Britney Spears the night after she had won numerous awards at the VMAs in New York (she did the worst cover of Journey’s “Open Arms” I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard a lot of bad karaoke in my time). I got to see Destiny’s Child at the height of their popularity in a show the night before the 9/11 attacks. I got to see Joan Jett and the Blackhearts kill it, as always, to a frustratingly small audience, as well as Nickelback suck it, as always, to a frustratingly large one.
This year’s grandstand musical lineup doesn’t have much in the way of “hot” attractions, although some will love seeing Plain White T’s doing their pop-rock tunes on opening night, or Amy Grant bringing the pop-gospel to town Friday night. For me, .38 Special offers the best bang for the buck. I went and saw the Southern-rock crew at the Peppermill Concert Hall back when it opened, and I was shocked how many of .38 Special’s songs I remembered from the ’80s. Those guys were hit machines, and you can do a lot worse at a state fair than hear “Hold On Loosely,” “Caught Up in You” or “Wild-Eyed Southern Boys.” And did I mention there’s beer? You’ll want to have a few before the show.
JASON ISBELL & THE 400 UNIT, THE STATE ROOM, Thursday, Sept. 5, 8 p.m., Sold out
Jason Isbell closed down the Utah Arts Festival with a fine Sunday-night set that included a few songs from his excellent new album, Southeastern, as well as some older favorites from his past solo efforts and time with the Drive-by Truckers. This week’s stop at The State Room, though, is the first time we’ll get the full experience of that new album on a headlining tour, and I’m really looking forward to it. Isbell has been consistently creating one of the finest catalogs in American roots-rock for a good decade or so, and Southeastern just might be the best album of his career. It’s also the first he’s done since tackling past drinking demons with a little help from his wife Amanda Shires and buddy Ryan Adams, among others, and unlike far too many rock and rollers, sobriety seems to have only improved his knack for killer hooks and piercing lyrics. Joining Isbell on the bill is T. Hardy Morris, frontman of Dead Confederate currently on a solo jaunt. This double-bill of Southern songwriter should make for a special night. It’s sold out, so you’ll have to hit the Internet for a ticket, or hang out at The State Room on show night and hope for the best from a kind stranger on the sidewalk.
Ever since the band’s Utah debut at the old Utah Fair Park Coliseum, supporting the now-25-years-old Nothing’s Shocking, Jane’s Addiction has become a bit of a white whale for me.
Through their successful (commercially, if not musically) follow-up, Ritual de lo Habitual, and invention of the Lollapalooza festival, the Los Angeles quartet was the arguably the most significant band on the planet for a brief window of the early ’90s. Since then, though, they’ve mostly been on hiatus, getting together for a couple of albums of new material in the past two decades, and more-regular reunion tours that trade on the incredible good will the band built up during their initial burst into the public eye.
That good will is what drew me to Usana Amphitheatre Monday night, for an appearance by Jane’s Addiction at the Uproar Festival that also featured fellow early ’90s refugees Alice in Chains as well as younger, more creatively active acts like Danko Jones and Coheed & Cambria.
For their one hour on stage, Jane’s Addiction proved well worth the effort of braving a decidedly metal-tinged festival and the drive to West Valley City for a run through some of Jane’s Addiction’s best. After starting with “Underground” from their 2012 release, the largely forgettable The Great Escape Artist, Perry Farrell and Co. wisely got down to the older songs that made their reputation.
“Mountain Song” led into another “new” song, “Just Because” from the band’s 2003 effort, Strays. And while that track is a better representation of the band than virtually anything from their album from last year, it paled in comparison to its follow-up, “Standing in a Shower, Thinking.”
“Been Caught Stealing” incorporated a bit of Farrell scatting about “wide open spaces” while guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Chris Chaney vamped through some jazzy improvisation. That loosening up by both band and fans helped the new “Another Soulmate” go down better than much of the newer Jane’s material, while Ritual‘s epic journey of “Three Days” managed to capture all the over-stuffed grandeur of the original version.
After the expansive “Three Days,” the show’s final burst was an energetic blast, starting with the booming “Ocean Size” and moving through “Stop!,” the percussion-heavy “Chip Away” and the set-closing acoustic take on “Jane Says.”
Was the set predictable? Sure. Was Farrell in his best vocal form? Not really, whether due to the desert climate or merely the natural effect of aging. Were the “new” songs as good as the classics from Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual? Of course not.
Even so, Jane’s Addiction delivered a memorable burst of nostalgia that was far more effective than the Alice in Chains set that followed, and far more listenable than the Coheed & Cambria prog-metal excursion that preceded them. I’ve been wanting to see them every time I’ve had the chance since that Utah State Fair Park show roughly 25 years ago, and Monday’s show proved that is not such a bad plan, all these years later.
There’s no denying the sheer entertainment value of a Charles Bradley show.
You put a mid-60s soul man in front of a rock-solid seven-piece band adept at recreating the classic soul grooves of the STAX and Motown records of yore, and you’re off to a good start. Give that frontman some charmingly silly dance moves–complete with pelvic thrusts, robot twists and James Brown-style collapses to the floor–and you’re pretty much guaranteed a memorable live show that will be more entrancing than most live music experiences in these twerk-heavy times.
That said, after seeing Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires headline a sold-out show at The State Room Wednesday night, I don’t think you could argue that Bradley and Co. are blazing any new musical trails. Rather, they are a stirring reminder to music fans of how great things once were, when live horn sections were the rule rather than the exception, and a funky groove and energetic frontman were far more important to a band’s success than a slick video or vibrant Web marketing campaign.
I, for one, welcome that reminder. The more people that get to experience a Charles Bradley show, the better. The man has charisma for miles, and a gruff voice full of emotion that serves his retro-soul style well. Filling his show with songs from his two albums, 2011’s No Time for Dreaming and this year’s Victim of Love, Bradley led his excellent Extraordinaires through a show that clearly thrilled the throngs on hand at the sold-out State Room.
Rarely pausing for long between songs, Bradley and his band barreled through the show-opening “Love Bug Blues” after the musicians had amply warmed up the crowd with a slick display of old-school instrumental soul music that was incredibly easy to dance to.
“Crying in the Chapel” and the scorching social critique of “The World (is Going Up in Flames)” followed quickly, with Bradley shedding his jacket to bump and grind with his microphone stand. The man clearly loves the attention he gets at center stage, teasing audience members with sly glances and dramatic moves designed to elicit immediate responses from the audience.
For the most part, those moves worked. Bradley was a blast to watch work the stage, just as his Extraordinaires delivered a stellar soundtrack to his moves. Songs like “How Long,” “You Put the Flame On it,” “Hurricane” and “Confusion” helped round out a fine night in the way-back soul machine.
If you’re going to take a trip to the past, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better conductor than Bradley.
Here are some shots of the show courtesy of Austen Diamond, and visuals definitely capture the energy of a Charles Bradley show more than I ever could in words. You can find more of Diamond’s work at AustenDiamond.com:
Concert reviews: The Head and the Heart’s “secret” late-night show, George Thorogood fights the rain
At face value, the shows at Red Butte Garden and The Urban Lounge Tuesday night could not have been more different. And the experiences certainly had little in common–other than showing just how dedicated some music fans can be when an artist they love comes to town.
In the case of Red Butte Garden, that was exemplified by the thousands of fans who braved a torrential downpour to hear George Thorogood and the Destroyers knock out some old barroom favorites after an opening set by the legendary Buddy Guy (why Guy was opening for Thorogood on this “co-headlining” bill, I have no idea). And in the case of The Urban Lounge, the dedication was shown by the hundreds who showed up on just a few hours notice to catch The Head and the Heart serve as an emergency fill-in for The Moondoggies, another Seattle band that had to cancel due to car issues.
The Head and the Heart happened to be in town to open for the Dave Matthews Band earlier in the evening at Usana Amphitheater, but their impromptu appearance at The Urban Lounge was as epic a headlining gig as fans could have hoped for even if the show was planned months in advance.
Mixing songs from their excellent self-titled debut and new ones from their upcoming October sophomore release, The Head and The Heart clearly relished the emphatic response of the fans who showed up on such short notice. The crowd sang along to all the familiar songs, from the opening “Cats and Dogs” to the final encore of “Rivers and Roads,” and 15 songs in between, clapping along with the band’s three primary vocalists–the lanky Jonathan Russell at center stage, guitarist Josiah Johnson and violinist Charity Rose Thielen.
The Head and The Heart has proven an inspiring live band from their early stops in SLC like gigs at Kilby Court and Slowtrain, and that hasn’t changed as they’ve moved into larger venues–they sold out The Depot their last headlining stop in town, and opening for Matthews at the 20,000-seat Usana probably got them in front of their biggest-ever Utah audience. That made the cozy confines of The Urban Lounge all the better place to see them Tuesday night–we won’t get to see them in that kind of environment again any time soon.
The band took advantage to debut a few new songs, despite Thielen’s announcement that “it’s tough playing new shit. You usually fuck up!” Any fuck-ups weren’t noticable, and it’s safe to say the new songs played Tuesday share the epic range of the material on their debut album. I’m not sure on all the titles, but one called “Shake” led by Russell was particularly strong, and others showcased, at various points, the band’s stellar vocal harmonies and wicked way with an anthemic hook.
Among the other highlights were “Coeur d’Alene,” “Ghosts” and “Lost in My Mind,” a song dedicated to Russell’s brother and featuring a stage invasion by the band’s friends in The Devil Whale. Another new one, “My Friends,” was excellent, as was the last song of the set, a brilliant take on “Down in the Valley.” For encores, both Johnson and Thielen performed solo songs before the full band returned to shut it down with “Rivers and Roads.”
“This is one of the most fun shows we’ve played in a long time,” Russell said at one point, and it was pretty obvious he wasn’t lying.
In the end, the unexpected gig was one of the more inspiring nights of live music I’ve seen in a while, a fine example of band and audience totally in tune with each other, and wallowing in the joy of each other’s company.
The fans braving the rain for Thorogood at Red Butte Garden were not quite so lucky. Even if they weren’t soaked to the core from the cloudburst that arrived just after Guy finished his opening set, Thorogood was pretty much on auto-pilot in both his performance and between-song banter. That’s to be expected for a guy who’s been playing live for four decades, but it was still a bit disappointing.
I lasted about an hour, and did not once hear him make note of the fact that the folks on hand had stuck around through a nasty rain storm. To be fair, I didn’t stick around to the bitter end–I had that The Head and The Heart show to get to, of course–so maybe he mentioned it later. But I was there for every song I can imagine a casual Thorogood fan wanting to hear–from his cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” to “I Drink Alone,” “One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer” to “Bad to the Bone,” and most of his chatting could have been inserted in any town, on any night.
That’s not to say Thorogood was bad. Celebrating 40 years playing with his band the Destroyers, he’s an affable enough frontman, and an energetic one, running back and forth on stage and goading the audience into cheers and shouted requests. He brought an impressive batch of video screens with him to help the visual appeal of the gig, and his band was solid delivering the barroom blues that made Thorogood famous.
I was particularly happy to see him ditch the rain poncho after his first song.
CHARLES BRADLEY & HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES, THE STATE ROOM, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 8 p.m., $22
In just a few short years in the spotlight, Charles Bradley has established a reputation as a must-see live act. It’s good to see his background as a James Brown impersonator performing under the name “Black Velvet” paid off. It was in that role that one of the cats of uber-cool Daptone Records, home of fellow funk/soul/R&B revivalist Sharon Jones, discovered Bradley and found a man with incredible stage presence, a voice capable of conveying incredible emotion with is voice. His debut, No Time for Dreaming, arrived in 2011, and the buzz from his performances at SXSW that year was deafening. After being the focus of a documentary film in 2012, Soul in America, he got to work on his sophomore set, Victim of Love, that came out earlier this year. And while his albums are solid, it’s seeing the 65-year-old throw down with His Extraordinaires where Bradley’s personality truly comes through. Aaradhna opens the show.
Daniel Nailen 